Graeme Hamilton: Montreal Canadiens fans losing their religion

Montreal Canadiens fans losing their religion

As Montreal Canadiens president and owner Geoff Molson announced Thursday the firing of his team’s general manager, Pierre Gauthier, he repeatedly invoked the club’s glorious history.

The Canadiens are a “storied franchise” with 24 Stanley Cups to their name, he said. Winning a championship has to be the goal every season, because “our fans and our tradition demand nothing less.” His priority is to “re-establish a winning culture.”

At the moment, the only thing the team stands to win is a top draft choice for finishing the season at or near the bottom of its conference. The Habs were officially eliminated from the playoffs on Saturday, but most fans had given up on this season long before.

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In fact, despite the lofty talk of tradition and culture, the season’s poor results are not that out of line with the Canadiens’ recent record. This will be the seventh time the team has missed the playoffs since it last won the Cup in 1993.

The closest it has come to a championship since then were the conference finals in 2010; when making the playoffs since 1993, the Habs have lost in the first round more often than not.

So, it’s a bit of a stretch to say this year’s edition is a dramatic departure from the quality of hockey Canadiens fans have come to expect. It could be that it is not the ghosts of Stanley Cups past that are driving Mr. Molson but the increasingly likely prospect that, soon, his game will not be the only one in Quebec.

On Sunday, Quebec City and media conglomerate Quebecor Inc. announced a final deal for construction of a $400-million, 18,000-seat arena in the provincial capital. The rink, to be built mostly with provincial and municipal government money, is aimed at attracting a financially struggling NHL franchise from the United States to replace the beloved Nordiques.

The rebirth of the Nordiques, who moved to Colorado in 1995, would seriously threaten the Canadiens’ status as the darlings of francophone Quebec. While getting rid of Mr. Gauthier, Mr. Molson made a shrewd move by hiring former Canadiens star and general manager Serge Savard to help in the search for a replacement.

Not only is Mr. Savard a direct link to the team’s glory days – he won eight Stanley Cups as a player and was general manager for the team’s last two championships — he is committed to the idea that the Habs should reflect their home province.

Speaking to TVA after his appointment, Mr. Savard said it is “very important” for the Canadiens to have more Quebec-born players. (They have just three on their roster.) “The Canadiens are the Flying Frenchmen,” he said, suggesting the team should get back to selecting more players from Quebec’s major junior league as he did when he was general manager. “There was a lot of French spoken in the dressing room back in my day,” he said, “but a few years later, it was more Russian that was spoken.”

More than 50 years after Maurice Richard hung up his skates, the Canadiens remain a powerful symbol of francophone success

He predicted that a return of the Nordiques would force the Canadiens to correct their course. He recalled that when the original Nordiques were on the rise in the 1980s, the Canadiens greatest fear was that the Nordiques would become “Quebec’s team.”

With the Canadiens’ on-ice performance generating little excitement this year, the biggest commotion of the season came when the team fired coach Jacques Martin in December and replaced him with Randy Cunneyworth, who spoke no French. The outcry over a unilingual anglophone coaching les Glorieux reached the National Assembly, where provincial cabinet ministers criticized the management move. The reaction showed that even in 2012, more than 50 years after Maurice Richard hung up his skates, the Canadiens remain a powerful symbol of francophone success.

At Mr. Molson’s news conference Thursday, carried live on the two French-language news networks, he was asked whether Mr. Gauthier’s eventual replacement should be able to speak French. He replied that his first priority would be finding “the best possible person to help us win.”

“That said,” he added, “it is important that the general manager be able to speak French.” It is certainly hard to imagine Mr. Molson wanting to relive the media and political backlash that greeted Mr. Cunneyworth’s appointment.

Mr. Molson said it is becoming increasingly clear that Quebec City will one day have an NHL team, and he welcomed the opportunity to rebuild the fierce rivalry between the two teams.

If the Nordiques return with their Quebec-blue jerseys, the battle will be for not just points in the standings but bragging rights as Quebec’s team. As things now stand, the Canadiens’ claim to that title is based more on geography than emotion.